


The Things You Only Tell Your Bartender

by rootbeer



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bar/Pub, Drinking, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Heartbreak, Human Gabriel, Lack of Communication, M/M, Oblivious Sam, bartender gabriel, hey bartender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-20
Updated: 2015-02-20
Packaged: 2018-03-13 21:57:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3397754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rootbeer/pseuds/rootbeer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabe studies him a moment, watching the way the man is determined to stare a hole into the wood of the counter. “Whiskey then.” Sam doesn’t get any sign of disagreement so he pulls out a glass to pour a helping. He pushes it towards Sam, glancing around the bar. It’s mostly empty, save for a couple people here and there. “Tell your bar tender what the problem is.” </p><p>Everyone has an easier time talking to the bar tender. It’s like a rule or something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Things You Only Tell Your Bartender

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Charlie_Remington](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie_Remington/gifts).



> For my best friend Becca who adores Sabriel

It’s just after six PM when Sam Winchester sits at the bar, a bit hunched over and looking tired as hell. His tie is pulled down from his neck, loosened in a way that would be dangerously sexy if the man’s face didn’t seem endlessly defeated and frustrated—and not in a good way.

“Bad day?” Gabriel asks, setting down the cloth he was using to wipe down the bar.

Sam looks up at him and then down again, not quite answering but giving a bit of a shrug.

Gabe studies him a moment, watching the way the man is determined to stare a hole into the wood of the counter. “Whiskey then.” Sam doesn’t get any sign of disagreement so he pulls out a glass to pour a helping. He pushes it towards Sam, glancing around the bar. It’s mostly empty, save for a couple people here and there. “Tell your bar tender what the problem is.” Everyone has an easier time talking to the bar tender. It’s like a rule or something.

“I’m breaking up with my boyfriend,” Sam says bluntly, finally looking up. He grabs hold of the glass and pulls it to him.

Gabriel frowns but nods, not too surprised. Relationships seem to be the biggest reason for whiskeys and loosened ties. He reaches down to pick up his cloth again and busies himself with drying the washed glasses. “Break ups can be messy.” But going from the hard look on the man’s face, this isn’t news.

Sam sighs into his drink, tipping back a bit of his drink. He swallows slowly, like he’s savoring the slight burn of it. “I guess.” He runs a hand through his hair, like he wants to pull it out from sheer frustration. Which would be a shame, Gabe figures, because it’s really nice hair.

Gabriel watches him, tilting his head a bit. “So what did he do?” He flicks his cloth a bit to get a better grip on it and leans a hip against the counter. He wouldn’t be surprised if Sam’s boyfriend had done something unforgivable and hadn’t even realized how awful it had been. “Forget something important or was he being an asshole?”

But Sam waves him off, shaking his head. Gabe watches Sam holding his glass in the air, just hovering between the counter top and Sam’s lips. “Nah, he didn’t really do anything.”

Gabe hums to indicate that he heard as he thinks that over. He quirks his lips a bit, looking up at Sam as he grabs another glass to wipe down. “So what, he just that bad in bed?”

And the other man snorts at that, meeting Gabe’s eyes like he’s conveying he appreciates the lightness provided even if it doesn’t help. “The sex is great. Really amazing, actually.” Sam admits then, breathing out quickly like an amused exhale, but he frowns to look back at his glass and take another big swig of drink.

“Yeah?” Gabriel rakes his eyes over Sam covertly. He’s a good looking man. Gorgeous really. All long legs and bright eyes. “So what’s the problem?”

Sam leans back, his eyes drifting about the bar slowly taking it in. “We don’t really want the same things.” He lets his pointer finger trail over the glass of whiskey, nearly empty already. “I don’t want to keep myself in a relationship that isn’t going anywhere, ya know?”

Ouch. Gabriel nods, understandingly, sympathetically. “Is there someone else in the picture or do you just not feel the same way anymore?” His voice is soft, no-judgment in it at all.

Sam looks up slowly, surprised by Gabriel’s tone.

Another woman steps up to the bar, looking over at Gabriel with an expectant look. Gabriel shoots her a smile, calling, “Just a sec.” She looks like she just wants another beer.

Sam licks his lips, pulling up his whiskey to his mouth again. Just before he seals his mouth over the rim of the glass he says, “No. There isn’t anyone else.”

Gabriel nods. There’s that at least. Makes break-ups cleaner, but not easier. Not with someone gorgeous like this guy, funny and smart and sexy. It would destroy anyone, to lose that once you’d had it. He steps away from Sam for a moment, wiping his hands on his jeans as he gets the woman her beer.

By the time he’s back to Sam the man is done with his drink. Gabriel refills him wordlessly, leaving the bottle in reach.

“It’s not that I don’t feel the same about him anymore,” Sam starts but then stops, looking like he just wants to crawl into his bed and never come out. Gabriel knows the feeling.

“It just not enough?” Gabriel hazards a guess, sweeping his eyes through the bar to check in on it. It’s the same as usual. Slumming and quiet with just enough of a buzz that it never is silent. Still, Gabriel feels like its too quiet and too small tonight.

By the time he’s looking back at Sam he’s thoroughly thrown by what he sees.

The man looks like he wants to crack the glass in his hands. “It’s not like I didn’t know what I was getting into when we got together. He’s a total dick half the time, seriously. And he gets all huffy about my job, complaining about the hours even though he knows it’s so important to me. But when I make sure to set aside time for him he acts like he doesn’t understand—it’s just fucking frustrating. God—and even though we’ve been together for two and a half years, every time I bring up him moving in or us getting our own place he freaks out.” Sam takes a drink of whiskey again, a longer gulp, as if he could drown the words coming out. He sets the glass down hard, but his face just looks defeated again. “I know he’s not really one for serious stuff or commitment, I always knew that. I never bothered me before but…now, I don’t think I can keep playing games when I’m so…Jesus, I just got a bit too deep.” He sighs again, tilting the glass for side to side to watch the drink slosh. “It’s my fault, really. I knew how things were, I always knew.”

Gabriel blinks a couple times, not really sure what to say. “You could just tell him that—”

But Sam’s shaking his head, tapping fingers along the counter. “No, I don’t want to be giving him ultimatums. That’s not fair to either of us. He either wants it or he doesn’t.” Sam shrugs. “I’ve been trying to make it work but…”

“I think anyone would be absolutely out of their minds to let you go,” Gabriel admits, setting down a glass he’s been drying for too long. “Your boyfriend must be a total ass if he can’t see that. A guy like that isn’t worth your time anyway.”

Sam’s back to staring at Gabriel, pursed lipped like he isn’t sure what he wants to say next. Like he doesn’t know if wants to agree with Gabe or defend his shitty boyfriend.

So Gabe takes the decision away from him. “You know Valentine’s Day is just a week away, right?”

Sam smirks and flashes sad eyes in a way that Gabriel swears takes talent. “He never really was one for things like that anyway. I don’t think that’ll really bother him.”

“Yeah, but you are,” Gabriel tells him. “And maybe he’s been staring in the mirror practicing for a month, trying to get it right. Wouldn’t be fair to let it waste.”

Sam’s face flickers with confusion, and it’s damn adorable. “Practicing what?”

“Proposing,” Gabe says in a matter of fact tone. “Because I know for a fact that he bought a ring months ago, wanting to be all surprising and romantic since he always was awful at that sort of thing.”

Sam’s mouth drops open a bit. “…Gabe—” he breaths out, his eyes all wide.

Gabriel reaches across the bar to take hold of Sam’s loosened tie. He pulls the man towards him, bumping their noses together when they meet half-way across the bar counter. “I definitely don’t want to break up, Sammy. But I will get down on one knee and propose to you in this shitty bar right here and now if you really don’t want to wait a week.”

Sam lets out a shaky breath, like he’s laughing even though his eyes are watering. “Damn it, Gabriel. I didn’t mean to ruin your plans.”

Gabriel can’t breathe. God—no, he really can’t. “You don’t have to,” he tells Sam, staring into his eyes. “God, Sam. Just tell me you don’t want out of this because that—that’s the last thing I want.”

Sam chokes a relieved sigh that sounds suspiciously like a whine. “Didn’t think you were the marrying type.”

Gabriel grins at that, ignoring how bad his hands are shaking. “I didn’t think so either. Turns out I’m just not the type for marrying people that aren’t you.” He pauses, letting his smile lessen a bit as he leans closer. “Please Sam. Please say we’re going to be okay.” He stops moving, just barely letting his lips graze Sam’s so that they’re just trading heat from each breath. Gabe lets his eyes fall shut, wondering if maybe he had already waited too long. He doesn’t think he could survive losing this.

But then Sam’s lips are against his, urgent and pleading. Gabriel kisses back—relief, love, promise.

Someone clears their throat and they pull back reluctantly. All Gabriel wants is to take this man to bed and never let him go. If he could just hold him in his arms until there was no doubt about how he felt. “Just a second,” he tells whoever the fuck it was without opening his eyes or moving away from Sam. He just lets his forehead rest against his.

“I have to work until ten,” Gabriel tells him needlessly. “I could try giving Cas a call, see if he can’t cover me.”

Sam just presses a soft kiss against Gabe’s lips and then pulls back. “It’s okay. I can wait.”


End file.
